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Ricochet Editor-in-Chief Jon Gabriel and Heatstreet contributor Stephen Miller welcome Erin Gloria Ryan to talk about her trip at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Erin is a senior editor at the Daily Beast and appears on truTV’s “Greatest Ever.” She previously served as the Managing Editor of Jezebel and Deputy Editor at Vocativ, as well as a writer for VH1’s “Best Week Ever.”

Welcome to the Harvard Lunch Club Political Podcast for January 10, 2017, it’s the Hollywood Hell edition of the podcast – number 101 – brought to you by ZipRecruiter and Simplisafe.

It’s hard to get past Meryl Streep’s Golden Globe slam of Donald Trump. That is one hurtin’ woman. Put Hollywood together with academia, Wall Street and Silicon Valley (just check this out!), shake, and try to strain out a single Trump supporter. Good luck! Mike posits that Hollywood celebrities and university physicists have some salient points in common.

Welcome to the Harvard Lunch Club Political Podcast for January 2, 2017, this is, my god I can’t believe it, our century mark podcast. Yep, podcast number 100! And as grandiose as that is, we have an equally grandiose theme, it’s the Back to Camelot edition of the podcast, brought to you by ZipRecruiter. If your business is giving you headaches because you can’t find the right candidates for the wonderful jobs you have to offer, take a look at ziprecruiter.com.

You can find us online at HarvardLunchClub.com and on twitter where our handle is @HLCpodcast; we are also on facebook, look for Harvard Lunch Club Political Podcast. And of course we are here every week on Ricochet – the groovy center right clubhouse for intelligent talk and interesting perspectives.

It sounds like the subtitle of an Indiana Jones movie, but The Lost City of the Monkey God is the name of the new nonfiction book by Douglas Preston.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Preston explains what it’s like to find the ruins of an unknown city in an impenetrable jungle full of venom-spitting snakes and prowling jaguars, how he and his team even know to look for the place in the most remote regions of Honduras, and who were the people who lived there centuries ago.

It’s the end of the year and Professors Richard Epstein and John Yoo are in a globetrotting mood. First, what effect will the Obama Administration’s acquiescence to the UN’s anti-Israel motion have on the future of the Middle East? Then, is the White House doing enough to sanction Russia — and is President-Elect Trump taking the threat seriously enough? Then, closer to home, will President Obama’s last-minute executive actions be able to survive the Trump Administration? Can your Alexa be used against you in a murder case? And what 2016 passing has John Yoo the most depressed? (SPOILER ALERT: it’s culinary in nature).

The Venezuelan situation is hard to believe: hunger, violence, a reversion to the primitive. Yet there is beauty there too, and human goodness.

Hannah Dreier is on the scene for the Associated Press. And, once again, she is Jay’s guest on “Q&A.” They talk about parents who give their children away, or even kill them. And people who rob and murder with impunity.

Kimberley Motley is an American attorney and human-rights activist. She has been working in Afghanistan. She has been of particular help to girls and women. Last week, she traveled to Cuba, where she hoped to represent Danilo Maldonado.

Maldonado is a dissident and street artist nicknamed “El Sexto” (which means, “The Sixth”). Jay wrote about him here. He has been in and out of prison: and he is in prison again, for not saying and doing the right things after the death of Fidel Castro.

William F. Buckley, Jr. called him “the greatest English novelist of the [20th] century”–and so does Philip Eade, author of Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Eade describes Waugh’s legacy, picks his best books, and explains his conservatism. Also, he answers the most important question of all: When Evelyn Waugh married Evelyn Gardner, did she take his name?

Steve Hayes, newly-appointed editor-in-chief of The Weekly Standard, joins Jay and Mona to talk about foreign policy (he was a terrific Benghazi reporter), what is detectable about the Trump approach, and the polarization of news and information.

Jay and Mona then mull over the CIA. Can they be political? Are they being political right now?

Mona and Jay talk about President-elect Trump and his cabinet-building. Also about Carrier, conservatism, and capitalism. And about the hunt for heretics: Do you now or have you ever belonged to a church that opposes same-sex marriage? There is also some talk about identity politics vs. art: Who will win? The outcome of that war is momentous. And there is an appreciation of the Queen of England, and her husband, Prince Philip.

The podcast goes out with some music from a ballet that Mona brings up, and that is especially popular this time of year. It is the Grand Pas de Deux from “The Nutcracker,” by Tchaikovsky.

Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America have all crazy news today. They slam Pres. Obama for suggesting that Fox News being on in restaurants and bars is the reason Democrats fell short in 2016. They also unload on BuzzFeed for demanding to know whether popular HGTV hosts agree with their pastor about homosexuality being a sin – which leads to a bunch of fun tangents about HGTV in general. And they rip Democrats and the media for throwing a hissy fit about the Electoral College and even intimidating electors just weeks after clutching their pearls about Trump possibly not accepting the election results.

Jay wanted to turn to Lincoln Diaz-Balart, to get his thoughts on the death of Fidel Castro. Diaz-Balart is a veteran Miami lawyer and politician. He served in Congress for nearly 20 years. His family has been prominent in politics, both in pre-Castro Cuba and in the United States. His father, Rafael, was a friend of Castro’s; his aunt, Rafael’s sister, married Castro. But soon, Rafael and Castro had a sharp parting of the ways.

Lincoln Diaz-Balart’s reflections come from deep experience and knowledge. You will want to cock an ear to them.

Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America welcome Donald Trump’s nominations of Rep. Tom Price and Elaine Chao. We also debate whether Trump should seriously consider David Petraeus given his history of improperly handling classified information. And we discuss the absurd victim complex of the Ohio State terrorist.

Welcome to the Harvard Lunch Club Political Podcast for November 28, 2016 it’s the Trump Killed Fidel edition of the show! Trump stuns the world winning the big election and just like that Fidel exits stage left to his eternal reward. Coincidence? We think not. We discuss how finally Fidel’s place in history is well-urned. Yuk, yuk. Should the Cuban government have kept their glorious leader in corporum eternus in the manner of Castro’s inspiration and guide V.I. Lenin (who continues to greet tourists to this day in his subterranean mausoleum)? Might an embalmed Fidel have come in handy as the greeting face at the future Havana Disney World’s Yesterday Exhibit? We’ll discuss.

And, why do liberals continue to whine and moan in utter hysteria over Trump and what can we do to get them to keep it up forever? Todd tells the story of a colleague who forwards all manner of diatribe to him – including a hilarious piece by Milo Yiannopoulos entitled Here’s Why There Ought to Be a Cap on Women Studying Science and Maths, the humor of which appears to have eluded said colleague. We’ll talk about Milo’s argument and the perspective of Nobel Prize Winner Tim Hunt regarding which Mike giving his informed scientific opinion.

Bernard Cornwell seeks to retell the history of England’s founding through his historical novels–and the adventure continues in his latest, The Flame Bearer.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Cornwell discusses why Alfred the Great was so great, how his main character is loosely based on one of his own ancient ancestors, and for how long he thinks he’ll keep on adding new titles to this current series of books.

David Clarke is one of the most famous lawmen in America. He is the sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. He is a commanding personality who has much experience and much to say. And he says it very well.

Sheriff Clarke is a guest on National Review’s current cruise. Jay sat down with him for a “Q&A” in front of an audience.

America and the world after the election of Trump: This is the general topic of Jay’s “Q&A” with John Hillen – who is, as Jay says, a soldier, scholar, businessman, athlete, and, in a word, hombre. Their specific topics are Syria, Russia, Ukraine, Europe, NATO, Japan, South Korea, the U.S. military, NAFTA, freedom, and so on.

As Hillen pointed out to Jay, after the podcast, Churchill had a word to America when our nation was on the ascendant, internationally: “The price of greatness is responsibility.” Clearly a theme of our time.